Star Wars: The Clone Wars - "Holocron Heist"Review

Note: For the review of part two of the one-hour Clone Wars premiere, "Cargo of Doom", Click Here.

Season 1 of The Clone Wars ended with the introduction of the very cool villain Cad Bane, and clearly Dave Filoni and his collaborators knew they had a good thing with this calculated bounty hunter, as he's once more the central villain as Season 2 begins.

The set up to the episode finds Ahsoka Tano given a bit of punishment, after she disobeys orders again, shades of her master Anakin. Assigned seemingly boring guard duty in the Jedi Archives (first seen in Attack of the Clones), Ahsoka unwittingly becomes involved in Darth Sidious' plot to gain access to those Archives and the Holocron chamber within.

Most Star Wars fans who have ventured into other Expanded Universe stories will be familiar with Holocrons, which have factored into many non-movie Star Wars stories before. While what it is Darth Sidious and Cad Bane wish to actually gain via the Holocron chamber is not made clear until the end of the episode, the simple inclusion of this part of Star Wars lore into the more official canon material of The Clone Wars is a fun one.

The great Paul Dini (who all of IGN, myself included, are raving about right now thanks to his work on the fantastic Batman: Arkham Asylum videogame) wrote this episode, returning to the series following his excellent Season 1 installment, "Cloak of Darkness." Unfortunately, when comparing the two, this installment falls short of the heights of "Cloak." It's a bit slow paced and drags in parts, and it seems like the story would have been better served with a bit more oomph behind it.

Click above to watch a clip from "Holocron Heist"

But that doesn't mean Dini doesn't deliver several cool moments, and I commend all involved for having an episode that has the same basic framework of such a recent installment as "Hostage Crisis" and yet not making it feel like a copy. Yes, Cad Bane is once more infiltrating a highly important area on Corcuscant, but his methods are incredibly different this time, involving much more stealth than his brash, violent attack last season.

The Battle Droids are only briefly seen in this episode, but it is with great pleasure that I report they don't speak at all! There is a droid who talks quite a bit though, actually – Cad Bane's droid, voiced by none other than Seth Green, whose chatty, nervous persona makes him something of a villainous counterpart to C-3PO. While his material isn't exactly hysterical, it's amusing enough and certainly isn't obtrusive. Most of all, it's another reminder that droid humor doesn't need to be annoying droid humor.

There is one brief lightsaber battle near the end of this episode, and while it's not among the best this series has offered, the participants make it feel unique. Meanwhile, the artistry this series displayed more and more as Season 1 went on is in full display here – there are some striking images in this episode, including the wonderful visual that accompanies Cad Bane's first scene, showing the bounty hunter in the shadows - which can be seen in the clip above.

It's also great to see more ongoing storylines developed – while the specific story in the Jedi Archives is wrapped up by the end of the half hour, there are major threads set into place for the next episode and perhaps beyond.